Hasta La Creative!

Will the Brooklyn Film Festival ever go Hollywood? Fuggedaboutit!

Four short, simple animations by TBWAChiatDay deliver the message that the borough and its festival of independent films, which runs from May 29 through June 7, are “3,000 miles from Hollywood”—in mind-set as well as distance.

The cartoon vignettes run between 15 and 25 seconds, comically contrasting celluloid styles from each location. For example, on the soundstages of Los Angeles, intricately choreographed fight scenes are performed by highly skilled stunt professionals suspended like marionettes on wires. In Brooklyn, you just get a knuckle sandwich. Similarly, we learn that Left Coast love triangles are overplayed soap operas, while in Brooklyn, everybody gets a piece of the action.

Animator/illustrator Seokmin Hong’s no-frills approach effectively positions Brooklyn as gritty and unpretentious in counterpoint to the razzle-dazzle opulence of Hollywood. “Other film festivals ultimately become ‘Hollywood,’ ” says Matt Ian, executive creative director at TBWA. “This campaign highlights the fact that Brooklyn—its culture, its people, its art, its attitude—remains as far away from Hollywood as you can get.”

Hmm, the L train hipster does bear a striking resemblance to a Spielbergian space alien. But that’s true of pretty much everyone in Williamsburg these days.

TBWA takes the differentiation concept a step further than BBDO’s recent Tribeca Film Festival ads with Jason Sudeikis, in which tourists on the street gave the Hollywood star “directions.” In Brooklyn, of course, plenty of folks would be happy to tell you where to go!

CREDITS
Client: Brooklyn Film Festival
Agency: TBWAChiatDay, New York
Executive Creative Director: Matt Ian
Creative Director: Deniz Marlali
ACD/Writer: Steve Skibba
Animation/Illustration: Seokmin Hong
Print Design: Sarah Romanoff
Executive Producer: Chad Hopenwasser
Sound Design: Roman Zeitlin
Director of Digital and Content Strategy: Aki Spicer
Account Director: Ed Rogers
Strategy: Damasia Merbilhaa
Social Media Team: Ryan Jin, Kiyotaka Sumiyoshi
Original Music by Elias
Composer: Eric Ronick